Mac Tips: Mac Terminal trick: How to list your apps

Posted 01 June 2015 - 11:00 PM

sincity

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Every week we'll bring you a how-to guide to do something quick and cool with Mac OS X. Sometimes it will be a tutorial on a lesser-known feature, other times it'll be a trick that uses built-in functionality such as Terminal, but either way, these simple tips can make life better and easier, and they don't require any special knowledge. All you need to do is follow the instructions!

Sometimes it's handy to have a list of all the apps installed on your Mac. For instance, if you need to cleanly reinstall OS X, and then add your apps and data back afterward to make the Mac run faster, it's easier to have a list than to rely on your memory. In this article, we'll show you how to easily make a list of the apps that are installed on your Mac for backup purposes.

To begin, we'll open the Terminal (located in /Applications/Utilities), and then type the following command (all on one line):